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Wed, 19 Dec 2018 07:57:43 +0000Joomla! - Open Source Content Managementen-gbThe Presence of an Absencehttp://www.proteusinitiative.org/entry/the-presence-of-an-absence-entering-2016
http://www.proteusinitiative.org/entry/the-presence-of-an-absence-entering-2016Having spent the last weeks, through the turning of the year, in mountain wilderness, our eyes, on returning to the highways that run through rural land on their journey to the city, are differently attuned.

At one point we must stop amidst a row of vehicles queuing on account of road works, and my eyes saunter over the surrounding fields. The highway, and our queue of cars, are ambushed by a grain monoculture that spreads relentlessly to the horizon on all sides, turning the landscape of rounded hills into a barrenness of functionality. Already the wildness within which we have lived these last weeks is being banished. My eyes scan the fields with a rising despair; then, suddenly, I spy vestiges of wilderness vegetation, scattered remnants of mountain plant life, still remaining but confined now to narrow strips of diversity running between the monopolies of fields and grains and fences. The landscape of commodification dominates the space so entirely that I have to adjust my seeing even to notice the wild plant life that borders some of the fields. My heart lurches – there, scattered, humiliated, the last of the once proud tribe of wild mountain vegetation breathes in the fumes of pesticides and diesel. We have been living amongst their brethren who still remain in their inaccessible mountain, amongst the limpid waters of streams and light-drenched summits of stone. Now my heart shakes again as the row of cars gears and revs into moving onward once more, and we with it; as we move through the gears, the remnants of scattered wild, refugee now in what was once its home, disappear entirely. In spite of myself, my own seeing is getting lost in the blurring of the way.

It is not difficult to feel deep despair as we gaze upon the world we currently inhabit. Failure is all around us – nationally and globally. Institutions, governments, international bodies are somehow failing to meet the growing world crisis at social, political, economic and environmental levels. It’s as if the unprecedented unravelling of our humanity is neither seen nor acknowledged in its enormity. Monstrous impositions of dehumanising and devivifying policies and practices rage throughout the world, and what we witness is extraordinary pictures of human suffering and growing uncertainty, where Yeats’ words take on a particular power and energy; more pertinent to these times than he ever might have imagined!Read more]]>people [AT] proteusinitiative [DOT] org (Lela)Proteus Blog FrontpageWed, 02 Jul 2014 10:29:42 +0000Writing as a Way of Observinghttp://www.proteusinitiative.org/entry/writing-as-a-way-of-observing
http://www.proteusinitiative.org/entry/writing-as-a-way-of-observingThe Proteus Initiative brings a Goethean phenomenology to bear on processes of social and environmental change. This means, amongst many other things, that we emphasise observation, the art of paying attention, not just as a means for understanding situations but also as a specific approach towards facilitating change in complex situations. There are many senses employed in the process of observation (not to mention a disciplined imagination), and Goethe noted that “every phenomenon rightly perceived opens a new organ of perception”. Clearly observational rigour develops the practitioner as much as it provides insight for appropriate approaches to specific situations.